Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 184 - One Hundred and Forty-Nine: Spectre

Chapter 184: Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine: Spectre

Two quarters of an hour later,

the battle had already neared its end. The originally even and lush forest now lay uneven and collapsed in many areas, with ground here and there still covered in the remnants of ice crystals from the recent fight.

"Boom!!"

With one final roar, the fighting subsided into calm, and everything around fell into a silence so still it was frightening.

A burly man lay on his back at the center of a large crater, staring at the silent sky where the full moon hung, and he let out a long breath:

"Huff... it’s finally over."

After saying this, he lay quietly for a few breaths before struggling to his feet, his eyes still showing traces of lingering fear.

The two people just now were really strong, but luckily, they were careless.

Thinking this, the burly man shook his head gently and picked up a blood-drenched severed hand that lay beside him, slowly making his way to the edge of the crater.

Next to the crater he was in was a river that flowed down from the mountain range, but now the small river that formed the valley had stopped flowing; the number of collapses and pits caused by the aftermath of the battle had cut off the entire river in its midst.

Scanning the scene, the burly man quickly found his intended target.

A short-haired, one-armed old man standing beside the severed river valley.

Approaching the man, the short-haired elder glanced back at the burly man with a voice neither cold nor warm:

"Are you alright?"

With a strained smile, the burly man replied in a low voice:

"I’m not too badly injured, but it’s a pity about Zhou Jing..."

"Alpha!" the elder interrupted, signaling that they could not afford to leave any trace behind.

"..."

Stunned by the warning, the burly man nodded and corrected himself:

"It’s a pity Beta has died."

After saying that, he glanced at the woods a hundred paces away,

where lay a body.

It was that of the somewhat plump woman, who after being frozen into an ice sculpture, had her chest blown open with a punch.

Unperturbed by the death of a companion, the short-haired elder softly said:

"No matter, Beta’s life or death isn’t important."

The burly man was somewhat dissatisfied with the elder’s callousness but ultimately said nothing, instead casting a glance toward the direction where the woman’s Origin Qi had vanished:

"What about Ran Qingmo?"

The short-haired elder responded softly:

"No problem, she’s badly wounded and I’ve marked her; she won’t get far. I will pursue her shortly."

"And if you don’t catch up?" the burly man hesitated, "That woman probably has a backup plan."

The short-haired elder appeared slightly hesitant:

"It’s fine. The nearest county town to Shengshan requires roughly three days for a round trip even with Third-Grade cultivation, enough time for us to destroy all traces. It’s just that the plan might have to be postponed, since there’s a high probability that we’ve involved the Prime Minister’s Mansion."

After a pause, the burly man asked the elder in a low voice:

"What about that man just now?"

The short-haired elder didn’t speak but raised his hand to point at a large hole in the midst of the river valley not far away.

The burly man glanced in that direction.

The man who had suddenly launched a surprise attack had disappeared without a trace, his flesh and blood completely gone, leaving only a skeletal corpse and a blood-red robe lying quietly at the center of the large crater.

Withdrawing his gaze, the burly man’s eyes carried a hint of amusement:

"If that guy had ambushed me or Beta, the three of us might have really been done for here. Too bad he chose to ambush you, old man."

The short-haired elder glanced at the burly man and said softly:

"That person had some rather strange methods; his cultivation was only around Seventh Grade, yet he could erupt with power on par with Third Grade, seemingly with the help of some external object."

Laughing at this, the burly man said:

"You have the nerve to talk about someone else’s methods being strange? Your Cultivation Technique is the truly bizarre one. Honestly, sometimes I feel like you’re not even human anymore."

Having said that,

the burly man tossed the severed hand he was holding to the short-haired elder across from him.

"Hmph."

With a cold snort, the short-haired elder caught the hand and promptly pressed it against his own wound where the arm was severed.

After a moment of silence, a strange aura began to flow.

In an instant, flesh started to proliferate, with numerous buds forming and connecting at the stump of the arm, eventually reattaching the entire limb, bone and all, back into place.

The burly man looked at the scene before him, fell silent for a moment, and then clicked his tongue in amazement and said,

"Old man, is this a secret technique or a cultivation technique? To not die even with the head chopped off, and to regenerate from a drop of blood, these are means of the Primordial Realm."

The short-haired elder gave him a cold glance and said,

"Enough talk, I’ll take care of the aftermath of the battle here. You hurry back to control the formation and kill everyone inside Shengshan County. Ran Qingmo has escaped; whether I catch up with him or not, we must promptly deal with the aftermath."

Upon hearing this, the burly man’s expression grew solemn, and he spoke in a low voice.

"Then I’ll go back to control the formation first, come over after you’re done here."

"Mm."

With that said,

the burly man took a moment to regulate his breath before transforming into a shadowy figure and dashing off into the distance.

However, the direction he was heading was not towards Shengshan County, but deep into the Wanxing Mountain Range.

The short-haired elder watched the other disappear into the distance, then shook his head lightly as he walked slowly towards the place where the man in blood-stained clothes had died.

Standing beside the skeletal remains, the short-haired elder stared for a few moments, then shook his head lightly,

"This garment is completely unscathed, truly a fine material. It’s a shame it can’t be used; I’ll have to find a chance to sell it at an auction house."

As he spoke, the short-haired elder bent down to pick it up.

But at that moment,

a few cherry blossom petals aglow with a faint light fluttered down from behind him.....

At the sight, the short-haired elder’s fingertips stalled.

He remembered there were no cherry trees around.

What’s more,

it wasn’t even the season for cherry blossoms to bloom.

Whirling around,

the short-haired elder saw two familiar figures behind him, one ethereal, one solid, chatting and laughing.

The man in bloodstained clothes chuckled and said,

"Old Man Luo, you see, I told you I could handle it myself, yet you still worried."

The middle-aged scholar’s phantom laughed heartily in return,

"Boy, for a Seventh Grade, you’ve comprehended the Dao Charm so thoroughly. I underestimated you, Old Man Luo. Plus, this Enchantress Divine Taoist Charm truly is somewhat mystical."

"....."

Watching this unfold, the short-haired elder’s pupils constricted slightly, trembling.

Then,

he found that everything around him began to change.

The blood-colored robe lying quietly on the ground was gone, replaced by the skeletal remains of a woman, while his lower body had already been frozen into an ice sculpture.

A bone-chilling coldness was creeping upwards relentlessly.

Enchantress Divine Taoist Charm.....

Connecting what he had just heard, the short-haired elder instantly realized he had fallen into his opponent’s illusion and killed his own comrade,

"You... what is this? Impossible!"

"There’s nothing impossible about it; your comrade ’No. 2’ has already taken Ran Qingmo to the control point of the formation."

Upon saying this, Xu Yuan didn’t bother with the elder’s outcry and instead turned to ask the Saint’s Remnant Soul,

"Old Man Luo, his cultivation technique is so strange, have you ever seen anything like it before? I tried to ambush him, but ended up being ambushed myself, nearly capsizing in the gutter."

The Saint’s Remnant Soul shook his head,

"I don’t know."

Xu Yuan smacked his lips, his gaze somewhat disdainful,

"Tsk.. what do you know?"

"What’s the rush, young man?"

The Saint’s Remnant Soul’s voice, leisurely with a hint of amusement,

"Though I’ve never seen a similar cultivation technique, I have seen similar creatures, and I, Old Man Luo, am quite familiar with that kind of creature."

Xu Yuan frowned,

"Creatures... what do you mean?"

Staring at the elder who was gradually turning into an ice sculpture, the Saint’s Remnant Soul smiled widely and uttered two words,

"Otherworldly ghost."